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Their faces fell grim. No smile. No gleam in their eyes. The hairs on the back of Hugo’s neck stood on end as a chilling shiver crept down his spine. A sense of impending doom replaced the once exhilarating reunion with Alice. As the grim reality of what was to come set in, his heart sank and hope was fleeting once again.

They turned to each other, their eyes meeting once more. Hugo wanted to comfort Alice with some semblance of hope. He hoped to find it in her emerald green eyes. He only found fear and anxiety riddled across Alice’s face. Her eyes welled, begging, pleading for Hugo to have an answer. He didn’t. There was no answer. He could only shake his head in a slow, disappointing ‘No.’

Alice collapsed her head into his shoulder. They dropped their weapons, embracing each other. At least they would be together. In this land of despair, they had each other. To Hugo, nothing else mattered except that they were together. They turned to face the oncoming storm—the banshee’s army, the rider, the death coach—all descending on their location.

The ghouls stopped at the edge of the decaying grass. They parted to make way for the rider and the banshee’s coach. The rider and his festering horse moved in for the kill. With every step of the black hooves, fire spewed forth from the horse’s nostrils. The rider gripped the hilt of his sword and unsheathed it. The fiery blade blazed an arch into the sky.

Hugo retrieved the hockey stick. “I’ll distract him and hold him off as long as I can. You run up the dock, and run as far asyou can. Just run,” he said as he raised the blade of the hockey stick above his shoulders, ready to strike.

Hugo’s hands trembled, betraying his stoic fighting stance. The sensation of his heart racing coursed through his chest. A bead of sweat rolled down his neck. His body tensed; every muscle tightened. He needed to relax, or else he couldn’t save Alice. He inhaled to calm his nerves.

“Hide somewhere until you can figure out how to escape,” Hugo commanded.

“To hell with hiding,” Alice said as she whisked the broomstick up into her hands. She stood poised with the broomcorn pointed at the rider. “We both get out of here or none of us do.”

“Don’t do this. Run. Run for your life. I’ll distract him. I’m already dead.”

“We’ll do this together as we always do.”

Hugo smiled at Alice, his hope renewed. He nodded. “Together.”

The two lovers—the neighborhood witch and vampire—stood poised in a fighting stance at the end of the dock, ready to fight for each other. Together.

The rider and horse stopped at the entrance of the dock.

The banshee’s black coach halted at the end of the cobblestone path. The door flung open and out emerged Madeline Sinclair. She strode with purpose, using the end of her black parasol as a walking cane, not for function, but to emphasize her power and might. She slammed the end into the ground with each step.

She held the bronze death mask in her other hand. Her shoulders pulled back. Fury in her eyes. She stepped off the cobblestone path, passing in front of the rider and onto the dock. She stopped.

“You almost made it, didn’t you? You almost escaped from my prison. And for what? To return to the mortal realm? The realm of pain. Of suffering. Of death,” Madeline said in a stern tone.

Hugo and Alice nodded at each other and lowered their stance, ready for a fight.

“You know the price to leave. Did you expect to pay it?” Madeline asked.

“Don’t you worry about it. We’ve got it covered,” Hugo barked back. He turned to Alice and whispered, “What’s the price?”

“Gold,” Alice answered in a hushed tone. “I have leprechaun gold in my pocket.”

“Leprechaun?” Hugo asked.

“You have much to learn, Hugo Dodds,” Alice replied with a sly smile.

“You’re welcome to dive and find the bell yourselves to call the ferryman. It offered too much hope—false hope. Those lost souls ran to the bell, rang it, and the ferryman came, only for them to meet their wasted fate. If you can’t pay the ferryman, then you turn to ash and dust. So, I had the bell cut off and thrown into the lagoon,” Madeline said.

An eerie silence fell over the land. The ghouls were rendered mute. The knocks stopped. The thunder and lightning ceased. A breeze picked up and chilled Hugo to his core. He inhaled deeply, never taking his eyes off the banshee.

Madeline offered, “You only have two options. Swim and hope those lost souls in the water don’t drag you under, or she comes with me.”

“She?” Hugo asked.

“We’re not going anywhere with you,” Alice yelled.

“I’ve given you the chance. You wore thin on my patience. My rider is yearning for the opportunity to send someone tooblivion, and I’m going to oblige him. I only need to extract the spell from one of you,” Madeline responded as she held the bronze death mask aloft.

“Do we swim for it?” Hugo asked.

“We’ll fight,” Alice said. “We have to at least try.”